Vir Biotechnology shares rose over 6% in premarket trading. Glaxo & Vir to supply more COVID antibody doses in the US.
GlaxoSmithKline and partner Vir Biotechnology announced that they have signed an agreement with the U.S. government to supply an additional 600,000 doses of their monoclonal antibody, sotrovimab. These doses will be supplied throughout the first quarter of 2022.
The agreement also allows the government to further procure additional doses of sotrovimab during second-quarter 2022. After taking into account this supply agreement with the U.S. government, both Glaxo and Vir have secured agreements with various entities across the world to supply nearly 1.7 million doses of sotrovimab.
The press release indicates that Glaxo and Vir could produce 2 million doses of sotrovimab in first-half 2022. Both the companies also expect to produce additional doses of their antibody treatment in second-half 2022.
Please note that this new supply agreement entered by Glaxo and Vir with the U.S. government is an amendment to a contract agreement signed between the same parties in November 2021 for the supply of sotrovimab doses for approximately $1 billion to the U.S. government by Dec 17, 2021.
The signing of the supply agreement for sotrovimab is beneficial for both the companies, especially the small but growing pharma company, Vir Biotechnology, whose current revenue source is the supply of sotrovimab doses.